14 degrees

My Life is Yours

The Driver, Mini-Me and I are headed to H*iti at the end of this week. We are leading a team there to help get an orphanage off the ground. Not sure how--if at all--I will be able to post, but here is the link in case you are interested.http://journeyintohisheart.blogspot.com/1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Happy Birthday (a Little Late)

Daughter of Purpose has now been with us for over a year. About two weeks after her "Gotcha Day" celebration is her birthday. Here's a few pictures with her cake (when she stopped off her scooter long enough) and one with her new Build*A*Bear. Somehow that's become a tradition in our home...building an animal. Daughter of Purpose has finally joined the club!(L-R: Mini-Me, The Talker, Daughter of Purpose and Littlest One)4 of the 5 kids were around to enjoy the DELICIOUS ice cream cake made by my friend, Mo. The Negotiator had fallen asleep and we couldn't rouse him to save our lives! So at least you get to see most of our team! As you can see, Daughter of Purpose is very into dolphins. I think it started during our trip to Sea World earlier this year.1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Scooter Queen

Okay, so I'm really behind on this blog. I had planned on having it finished up by now, but I still have a few more stories to tell! I'll try to get to it this week. For today, the birthday of Daughter of Purpose, we celebrate that she is riding a scooter!Yes, you read it right...she's riding a scooter. Another thing she is doing that beats the odds. Daughter of Purpose has been dying to ride some sort of mode of transportation, but hasn't had much luck yet. It wasn't until last week when we were at a friend's house that she discovered a scooter with 2 wheels in the back and 1 in the front. She actually braces herself with her weaker leg and then pushes with her stronger leg. Amazing!We decided to give her a scooter of her own for her birthday today and she was so happy that she rode it ALL DAY LONG!! Every moment she could be on her scooter, she was on it. I thought for sure she'd ask if she could park her scooter by her bed tonight and sleep with her helmet on. She has already declared to me that she is done with the bike trailer. She told me that from now on she would be riding her scooter when we do a family bike ride. What a crack up she is!As she readied for bed tonight, she needed me to reassure her over and over that she would be able ride her scooter in the morning. I think I have a long day of scooter riding in my future!In the picture she was barking at me to "move outta the way" because she had a scooter to ride!1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Bring it On!

Daughter of Purpose is ready to take on the swimming world. Today is our first venture into the pool and Daughter of Purpose is going to explode soon if I do not take her into the P-O-O-L!!! She has been counting down the days, as you can imagine. Now that "The Big Day" is here it is pure torture to her that she has to wait until 1:00 pm!! What were these party planners thinking? She was ready at 7:00 am!!1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Gotcha Day

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Who Would've Known?

Just about one year ago Daughter of Purpose was in Russia knowing nothing of the English language. Tonight Daughter of Purpose received her Awana Cubbie award for completing her whole book. Do you know what that means? It means that every week for the past school year, she has memorized one verse from the Bible--in English. Pretty amazing if you really think about it, don't ya think?1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Language Acquisition

It has been almost a year that Daughter of Purpose has been with us. If you've been following her blog, you know that she picked up the English language a lot quicker than we expected. It was at about 6 months, she was pretty fluent.Now we're seeing something interesting about her language. Based on the questions she inundates us with daily, we're starting to realize that when she appeared to be fluent, she really was just repeating phrases. She'll hear a phrase and repeat that one. Surprisingly she'd use the right phrases in the right circumstances. In retrospect it doesn't surprise me since I'd often hear one my other kids say something like, "My tummy hurts" and then within minutes her "tummy would hurt" also, but I just didn't realize until now that she's been repeating these phrases without ever really knowing what she was saying.Nowadays she spends her time picking apart the English language. She's beginning to ask questions about what those "phrases" mean. For example she will randomly say, "What does 'died on the cross' mean?" or "What does 'eating' mean?"Because her talking is constant, it can drive me crazy at times, but when I put it in perspective, I try to give it as much patience as possible. It's just like having a two-year-old that asks the "why" question all day long. It is just a phase and I know it will pass.No one really told me about the part of adopting a child from another country, but in retrospect it makes sense. As Nathan and I attempt to continue our studies of the Russian language, it also gives me perspective into our language learning. We do the same thing. We learn phrases of Russian and then later we figure out what parts of that phrase mean and then move those parts of speech around and mix them with other words we've learned.Ahh the things you learn from adopting...1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Directions

Another interesting thing I've noticed about Daughter of Purpose is her ability to know her surroundings. I noticed this awhile ago, but was watching to see if it was a fluke or not. We can be driving somewhere and if she knows our destination, she knows if we are going in the right direction or not.For example, when we get off the freeway, she knows we are almost to church. We can even be driving somewhere else but is near the church and she can identify where the church is in relation to us.It is not uncommon for her to direct me that I am going the wrong direction if I change course from what I told her our agenda was. Just the other day she knew we were going to our school group, but I decided to stop somewhere else on the way without telling her. As we pulled out of our neighborhood and I went left, she piped up from the backseat, "Hey Mom, you are going the wrong way. School is the other way."The other moment that cracked me up was when we came out of In-n-Out Burger. In order to get to our house from In-n-Out Burger, you have to go right and then make a U-turn, but yet our house is to the left. Daughter of Purpose let me know that I was going the wrong way because home was back that way. I had to explain to her what I was doing. She still didn't really get why I couldn't go left, but once we got back to heading in the right direction she relaxed.Since I'm directionally challenged, it is good thing that God gave me Daughter of Purpose. Apparently with her in the car, I'll never get lost!1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Defying the Odds

Every day Daughter of Purpose defies the odds with every step that she takes, but every Saturday she goes above and beyond that when she plays T-ball. Never in a million years did those in her Russian orphanage ever think she'd being doing something such as this.I wish I could describe for you what it is like to be the parent of a special needs child. I suppose it's not that much different than that of a "normal" child, but yet it's like taking your parenting and putting it in overdrive. I (and my husband) am my child's best advocate because no one knows her better than we do. In those moments when doctors and physical therapists have basically let us know that this is the best they can do for her, it is us who has to step up to the plate, pushing forward to use whatever resources we have to continue on in what we think is best for her. We've had to use our own "tools" and common sense and not rely on others to do it for us. We are with her day in and day out so it is us who encourages her to press on and knows her limitations--always pushing her a little beyond what she thinks she can do. We are the ones who won't allow her to cop out and take the easy route and when she sets her mind to something it is us who stands beside her and cheers her on to succeed.I won't kid you though, it can be a mixed bag--we can sometimes be tempted to be discouraged. We've also had moments when we've had to reconcile our hopes with reality. We all have dreams for our children, but sometimes those dreams need to be adjusted and it can be depressing to realize that your child doesn't naturally have the same abilities as her peers. It can be frustrating to deal with people's ignorance and their stares. We will never forget the moment when it dawned on us that our child may never ride a bike. We won't soon forget that after less than a year, the physical therapist basically told us that he didn't know how to help, nor the moment when the doctors basically told us this was the top of the line for her.But we cannot dwell on these things. That's how we've gotten this far--by thinking outside of the box. Who knows, maybe she will ride a bike, but it just might need some alterations to the bike. Maybe she'll go on to be a top athlete in softball, but it might be in a different league than our other kids. It's just a matter of perspective. While we raise this incredible child that defies the odds simply by walking, we will not settle and we certainly will not dwell on the negative thoughts. We recognize that how Daughter of Purpose views the world will be learned from us. How we respond to peoples stares and questions will be the way she responds. If we accept defeat--so will she.So we will be forever grateful that God gave us this child to raise that has taught us so much, especially that life is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe she's right (remember when she said this last summer?), I will sit in the crowded Olympic arena one day and scream my head off for my Daughter of Purpose and I know which voices will rise above all the others--the voices of her family that didn't settle, but saw something in her and pushed her on toward greatness.May these simple Saturdays of T-ball be only the beginning...1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Our Family Vacation

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."